Posts

The American Bar Association has some bad news for law schools that churn out J.D.s who never pass the bar, despite three years of study and six figures of student debt: You’ll have to start doing better. On Friday, the ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar adopted a proposal to tighten bar passage rate standards. Under the new rules, schools will be required to show that most of their graduates pass the bar, and relatively quickly....

The specter of Black Friday has come and gone, fortunately with no deaths this year (at least related to shopping). But the controversy at California checkout counters is far from over. Proposed legislation and pending litigation could change the face of toys, and shopping in general. In 2011, a 13-year old boy was shot and, as a result is a paraplegic. Why was he shot? Because police officers mistook his replica gun for a real one....

While much of the new legal tech out there is focused on helping lawyers do their jobs more efficiently and profitably, one lawyer has started a website geared at improving the access to justice problem, at least when it comes to divorce in New York County and California. The newly launched website, by the divorce lawyer to the stars, Laura Wasser, It’s Over Easy, promises individuals seeking divorce a simple, user friendly way to do it, on the ever so trendy subscription model....

A lawyer for the evangelical group American Freedom Law Center has lost his Obamacare suit in the D.C. Circuit on the grounds of lack of standing. The appellate court ruled that the AFLCA and Robert Muise, it’s co-founder and senior counsel, failed to prove beyond the standard of probability that the Health and Human Service’s “transitional” program (allowing non-compliant health plans to continue temporarily) actually caused a jump in his health care premiums....

A senior airman in the U.S. Air Force has pleaded guilty to disruptive intoxication after giving a police officer a “Wet Willy” over the weekend. Riley Swearingen, 24, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge Monday in a Mankato, Minnesota, courtroom, reports The Associated Press. Swearingen agreed to the plea deal after initially being charged with a peculiar felony for the apparent prank. How did Swearingen’s moistened fingers end up in the ears of one of Mankato’s finest?...

In a petition for review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) partial denial of a credit against charges for future transmission service to Petitioner utilities, the petition is dismissed where Petitioners lacked standing because FERC’s remedy did not actually require the utilities to issue transmission credits. Read Exxon Mobil Corp. v. FERC, No. 07-1306 Appellate Information Argued November 14, 2008 Decided July 7, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Griffith...

Does the Donald having you itching for a career in politics? Does litigating poorly designed laws make you wish you had a hand in writing better ones? Don’t worry, you don’t have to become a politician in order to change the law – working as a lobbyist can be a much more lucrative alternative. How lucrative? Eleven thousand lobbyists spent over $3 billion last year to influence the political process....

If you haven’t heard, Watson is the newest threat to mankind’s continued domination of planet earth. IBM’s supercomputer recently became a superstar as it faced off against Ken Jennings, Jeopardy’s current record holder. Watson more than doubled Jennings’ winnings, igniting panic amongst lawyers everywhere. Wait, what? Watson can clearly play Jeopardy, but can he do anything else? How are Watson and lawyers connected? Legal jobs are being outsourced to India, are they now going to be outsourced to a computer?...

If there is one thing criminal lawyers know about judges, it’s that they like to see contrition from defendants. Even if it’s just a speeding ticket, a defendant that knows they’ve done wrong, feels bad, and is ready to face the consequences, is likely to get a more lenient sentence than a defendant that lacks these qualities. For the now punch-drunk famous New York City Parole Board ALJ, Robert Beltrani, his time as a jurist may have resulted in him forgetting this admirable quality of defendants....

Recently, the State Bar of Texas’s blog was updated to reflect that Texas lawyers, like lawyers in every state, are still being targeted by really sophisticated email scammers. These scammers prey on a lawyer’s greatest vulnerability: easy money. Lawyers hungry for business are often the best prey for these scams, which are basically much more sophisticated Nigerian prince phishing schemes, and have been around for years. The scariest part is that these lawyer phishing scammers not only know how to use spellcheck, they’re skilled at identity theft and forging docs too....

Oakland A’s outfielder Manny Ramirez’s domestic violence charge has been dropped by a Florida prosecutor. The state dismissed the charge after his wife, Juliana Ramirez, failed to cooperate with investigators, The Washington Post reports. It’s believed that Juliana is currently out of state, a representative for the Broward County State Attorney’s Office said. The former 2004 World Series MVP was first taken into police custody on September 12 after his wife called the cops....

Zainab Ahmad, the top prosecutor of international terrorists in the United States, sits at a crossroad of contradictions in American law and policy toward Muslims. Ahmad, 37, is an Muslim-American attorney whose immigrant parents were born in Pakistan. If not for her credentials as a federal prosecutor, she could have been detained at the airport under President Trump’s campaign against Muslims. It is not the first twist in the road of her storied career....

Amid one of the nation’s worst public defense budget crises, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has been ordered by the state’s public-defender director to sign up as counsel of record for the state’s poorest. Unable to pay for sufficient public defenders, the state’s director of the public defender system called upon a little-used law that allows him to enlist lawyers as public defenders. The governor, being an attorney, was first on that list....

We’ve all had one of those Friday nights, right? The ones that leave you a bit woozy on Saturday morning? Lucky for most of us, we don’t have to go to work early on a Saturday morning. Not so for Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio, who was on her way to Saturday morning arraignments when she was ticketed for driving while intoxicated at 8 a.m. Right to Refuse? More than most defendants, Judge Astacio should know what to expect when pulled over for DWI....

Back in July, a curious thing happened: Two circuit courts of appeal, both addressing the same issue, released conflicting opinions within hours of each other. In the D.C. Circuit, the panel held that the language of the Affordable Care Act only authorized tax subsidies for low-income individuals who purchased insurance through state exchanges. A few hours later, and a few hours’ drive south, the Fourth Circuit went the other way and agreed with the Internal Revenue Service’s interpretation, which allows subsidies for those who purchase through the federal exchange....

Conviction and death sentence for first degree murder and other crimes are affirmed where: 1) the court did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress evidence as there was probable cause for issuance of a warrant and it was lawfully executed; 2) the court did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress her confessions; 3) purported constitutional error in selecting the grand jury was not prejudicial, and the grand jury had jurisdiction to indict her; 4) venue for the trial was not improper; 5) the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction for robbery; 6) the court did not err in the various instructions it gave to the jury; 7) the court did not err in its rulings related to the aggravating factor of attempted escape; 8) there was no error in admitting victim impact evidence and in not giving a limiting instruction on victim impact evidence; and 9) California’s death penalty statute does not violate the state or federal constitutions....

In forfeiture proceedings related to $10,153.38 seized by police at the time of defendant’s arrest for drug related crimes, trial court’s order of forfeiture is reversed and remanded as, construing the forfeiture statute strictly, the People’s failure to try the forfeiture proceeding in conjunction with the underlying criminal case precluded entry of an order of forfeiture. Read People v. Ten Thousand One Hundred Fifty Three Dollars and Thirty Eight Cents In US Currency, No....

The public could be getting access to Martin’s Beach again, after a ruling by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco yesterday. Surfers, picnickers, and beach goers had accessed Martin’s Beach in Half Moon Bay for decades, crossing private land to get to the secluded shoreline. That is, until 2010, when billionaire tech investor Vinod Khosla bought up the land and cut off public access. Despite the California Constitution’s grant of public access to public beaches, a trial court dismissed a suit seeking to reestablish public access....

The NFL has been dangling a Los Angeles franchise as a carrot to owners seeking to leave their current locations and a stick to cities and fan bases to pony up for new stadiums to keep their teams. And the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders, and St. Louis Rams have each officially entered the three-way battle royale for L.A. All three teams filed applications for relocation to the NFL on Monday, and league officials will begin meeting on Wednesday to decide which team(s) will begin the 2016 season in L....

Sorry sir, you are legally dead. We don’t much care you are still drawing breath. Every year, more than 12,000 people are declared dead by the Social Security Administration, but they’re still alive! How is this possible? Faulty Reporting The Social Security Administration (SSA) maintains a list of people who died called a “Death Master File.” However, the SSA doesn’t get its information from a centralized database. Deaths are reported to the SSA from thousands of difference sources such as funeral homes, banks, family members, Veterans Affairs offices, or creditors....